Saturday, October 1, 2016

Penguin Classics 70th Anniversary Issue

In 1946, Penguin Classics launched its own Odyssey with a translation by E.V. Rieu, and seventy years and 1600+ titles later, the journey continues with new editions, new authors to Classics, and new cutting-edge book designs. This fall, join us in celebration of our anniversary, post about the Classics you love with our hashtag #penguinclassics70, and check out our latest arrivals and goings-on.

Penguin Orange CollectionDrawing inspiration from the original 1935 Penguin tri-band design, we are publishing the iconic striped look in the US for the first time for our new, limited-run anniversary series, the Penguin Orange Collection. Twelve American classics, from The Crucibleto The Call of Cthulhu, are in Deluxe packages with custom illustrated covers by artist Eric Nyquist. For fans of classic Penguin design and Penguin Classics heritage, it gets no better than this.

Shirley Jackson Centennial"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality"— that, and many more unsettling lines come from an American master, Shirley Jackson, whose centennial we're celebrating with a new Deluxe Edition of The Haunting of Hill House, featuring an introduction by Slate book columnist Laura Miller and original cover art by Aron Wiesenfeld. "Eleanor, Eleanor..."

Read the Classics, Spin the ClassicsFor our anniversary, Penguin Classics and Ace Hotel New York with The Breslin Bar and Dining Room are throwing an old-school dance party on October 13th. You can celebrate with us by sharing your favorite classic songs that remind you of Penguin Classics. We’ll curate the ultimate mixtape with your help. Look out for our Instagram post about spinning the classics and comment with your picks. We'll compile a shareable playlist, so you can throwback with the paperbacks.

Also, guests of Ace Hotel New York will find a broom in their room. That is, on October 13th complimentary Penguin Orange Collection editions of The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace will be shared for our anniversary.

Black Panther Party 50thThis October, the Black Panther Party will mark its 50th anniversary. Founding Black Panther Huey P. Newton's visionary memoirRevolutionary Suicide traces the origins of the party's birth, and shines a light on Newton's impoverished childhood, struggles with the system, and determination to protect the marginalized black community of Oakland from oppressive forces. First published in 1973 and taught at colleges including Rutgers University and Kent State, Newton's searing work is just as relevant today as it was during the party's heyday.

Jack London and The Call of the WildThis summer’s surprise recommended read was from the acclaimed and highly binge-watched HBO mini-series “The Night Of”. London’s classic The Call of the Wild is featured as a key to prison survival. If, unlike the main character Naz, you haven’t yet read it, now’s the time to check in with your inner alpha dog.

Borges at the Anthology Film ArchivesCinephiles, bookmark your copy of Collected Fictions and come check out our November partnership with Anthology Film Archives for a week-long screening of films both critiqued and inspired by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares's writings. The two fiction writers were famously friends and avid film buffs, and their works of fiction and nonfiction left a major impact on mid-century filmmaking. Films that will be screened include Hugo Santiago's Invasion and The Others, for which Borges and Casares wrote the screenplays, as well as other classic works that Borges influenced. Visit the Anthology Film Archives event page for the full list of films and dates.

Campus ClassicFor each issue, we invite a professor to share an experience of teaching with a Penguin Classic.

"Nella Larsen’s Passing is a regular feature of my American and African American literature courses, because this sly, lyrical novel’s take on unexamined racial certainties and the ambiguities of desire never fails to delight and challenge readers. Recently, I taught the novel as a part of an upper-level course on 'Novels of the Roaring Twenties.' The students had already witnessed the transformation of James Gatz into Jay Gatsby, and they were fascinated by the resonances between this character and Clare Kendry, the 'vital glowing thing' who vacillates between black and white, destabilizes ideas about race, class, and desire, and reveals why so many Americans were fascinated by Harlem in the 1920s. Larsen’s novel prompts students to reconsider their own assumptions about the relationship between race and identity, and it rewards careful reading with unexpected revelations about the slipperiness of language and the complexities of sexuality." — Adam McKible, Associate Professor, Department of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York.